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Courtney Harris
Courtney Harris, Assistant Professor of Dance at Virginia Commonwealth University, hails from Texas where she danced professionally with the Houston Ballet under the directorship of Ben Stevenson from 1993-1999. During her tenure in Houston, she had the opportunity to perform a diverse spectrum of roles in many classical and contemporary ballets and worked with several renowned choreographers, including Jiří Kylián, Christopher Bruce, Trey McIntyre, and Stanton Welch. Some of her favorite roles include Odette/Odile from Stevenson’s “Swan Lake” and Manon from Sir Kenneth McMillan’s “Manon.” During the off-season, Harris additionally performed as a guest artist with Carlos Acosta and the Stars of the Houston Ballet. Interested in developing her choreographic voice after her dancing career, Harris earned her BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and her MFA from The Ohio State University’s Department of Dance. Harris’ research interests are twofold: re-framing ballet’s teaching practices through the lens of critical pedagogies, while also actively engaging in a creative practice in which feminist and queer discourse are embedded in her art-making. Harris and her collaborator, Charli Brissey, have screened films at International dance and LGBTQ film festivals all over the world, including screenings in India, Switzerland, Scotland, Argentina, France, Toronto, Finland, London, Ireland, Sweden, and Vancouver, as well as prestigious dance festivals such as Dance On Camera and Dance Camera West. Most recently, Harris and Brissey co-produced and co-choreographed a multi-media immersive theater performance that merged dance, theater, and drag performance with art, film, and sound installations: www.20ruejacob.net. The next iteration of this project, entitled 20 Rue Jacob, will be performed in D.C. in the summer of 2017. She has presented research at the National Dance Education Organization, The Image Conference, and CORPS de Ballet International’s annual conferences, where she also serves as the Treasurer. Harris returns to the American Dance Festival in Durham as teaching faculty for her fourth summer festival. She is delighted to join ClancyWorks at D.C.’s Dance Place for the 2016 Summer Dance Institute. |
Our annual Dance Educator's Training Institute (DETI) is scheduled to take place August 17-19, 2020.
This year, we've decided to take DETI online, due to COVID-19.
While we are saddened not to be able to hold DETI in person, we are excited to welcome people from around the world, who might not otherwise be able to join us! We will have more information about DETI Online in the coming days.
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